Towson’s White Nationalist Is Still Causing Trouble

A clash between avowed white nationalists and anti-fascist protestors at the California state house this weekend resulted in chaos and at least 10 injured people. And guess who was right in the middle of things?

Our old friend Matthew Heimbach, of course. If you need a refresher: Heimbach is the Towson University grad who caused a lot of trouble when he was at school in Baltimore, where he founded the White Students Union. The WSU antagonized the school by holding nighttime patrols to combat what Heimbach called the “very large problem of black-male-against-white-female crime” and inviting prominent racists to speak on campus.

Since graduating, Heimbach has left Baltimore (thank god) and has been cropping up all over the country–and, unsurprisingly, violence often seems to crop up in his vicinity. Heimbach was part of a group that shoved a black protestor at a Trump rally. And then over the weekend, when the Traditionalist Worker Party (which is the Heimbach-led youth wing of a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “virulently racist and anti-Semitic”) rallied in Sacramento in favor of white supremacy. The TWP organizers, who include Heimbach, claimed that the point of the rally was to protest violence at Trump rallies–which is hard to take seriously, since TWP and similar groups seem much more interested in instigating violence than in keeping the peace. In any case, counter-protestors clashed with the TWP, and 10 people were treated for injuries.

At least this time Heimbach was clear about his intentions: “We were there to support nationalism. We are white nationalists,” he told Reuters. “We were there to take a stand.”

Heimbach is, it should go without saying, a supporter of Donald Trump–excuse me, I mean Emperor Trump.